Listen. I want you to hear from me, I mean really hear, but how do I do it in an unapologetic-politico-equivocal, diesel-engine, hyperbolic-radio-shout-advertising-saturated world? Common wisdom is if you want to be heard then you better speak the power language, get on board, put up or shut up. If you can’t do it, you’re weak, apathetic, obstinate, and/or impaired. Challenged. I do a lot of double-thinking, double-speaking just to figure out how to communicate authentically, even with myself. The result can often be publicly embarrassing.

*The author of this blog assumes that you are already familiar with "small metal objects", by reading other posts or summaries, or seeing it yourself.

This piece left me with a rare emotional dichotomy: I'm certain that I understand what happened, how it was constructed, why certain choices were made...and yet I'm simultaneously lost in the uncertainty of meaning that seemed to permeate the piece. DID I GET IT? Do I really understand what I just saw? I suppose it doesn't matter. It gave me a certain feeling, and that feeling was warm and compassionate.

To sit within the Olympic Sculpture Park with the mandate to look and listen, aided by microphones and headphones is to occupy a place of privilege. Suddenly, rather then hiding the fact that you are engaged in voyeuristic practices, you are laid bare as a spectacle. The Voyeur. The Audience.

“I don’t want to cry in front of a guy. ”

The story of small metal objects is partly a story of masculinity that, much like the performance, is always in motion.

That place, those moments, this relation, these voices, when they capture something of the essence of being human and makes it immediate, there, staged, is the heart of the matter for me when it comes to theater. Here the stage is the Sculpture Park. We watch and listen a long time before we see any actors, yet the actors are certainly there. The noises of the city and the passers by in the park even the obnoxious jets roaring by overhead seemed to be somehow choreographed into the strangely affecting minimalist music and the funny, affirming, thoughtful dialogue.

*viewer has opted to not fully describe the content and appearance of each piece, as there are many other worthy summaries on the blog list, and the assumption is that you already have a decent picture of them in your mind. rather, this fact (opinion) list is meant to provide another voice on top of those already heard.